Aviation History – August 29, 1912. The Pommery champagne house has set up an air competition, the Coupe Pommery, which on August 29, 1912 arouses the greed of two airmen, namely Maurice Guillaux and Brindejonc des Moulinais, two Frenchmen who are about to take flight. on this day to try to claim the trophy, but unfortunately for them, it will be without success…
Indeed, they will be victims of their respective airplanes, the latter having an engine problem which will reduce their attempt to nothing. To win the prize, you must fly the longest distance between sunrise and sunset in a straight line. Guillaux thus wanting to fly from the city of Biarritz to that of Calais and Brindejonc des Moulinais opting for a Paris-Berlin raid.
A malfunction of a valve in his engine will shorten Guillaux’s journey, which therefore will not go beyond Coutras. Brindejonc des Moulinais, he will face an engine failure on his Morane-Saulnier monoplane and will have to stop in Verviers. Note that during his first attempt, he had been hit by a storm.
